Phonons, the quasi-particles of sound waves, represent an indispensable resource in modern communication technologies because of their universal coupling to literally any other system. Moreover, phonons propagate with moderate velocities which are approximately 100000-times slower than the speed of light. This enables miniaturization of gigahertz frequency devices to the size of a chip. Magnetic systems exhibit spin-wave excitations in exactly the same frequency domain and, thus, are ideally suited to couple to sound waves via magnetostriction.

In this project, we develop highly integrated programmable and scalable circuits, in which the propagation of phonons can be manipulated and even programmed by precisely engineered magnetic thin films. To this end, we bundle our complementary theoretical and experimental expertise and develop a complete toolbox of circuit elements for the design of integrated magneto-phononic circuits.

This is a joint project with the groups of Manfred Albrecht (University of Augsburg) and Hubert Krenner (University of Münster).